Top 5 Poker Hands Uploaded in November: The Biggest WPT Final Table Moments

To kick things off on this hand, Vanessa Rousso picks up pocket aces and raises. 

Andrew Robl calls in position with 8♣4♣. The flop comes A♣ A♠ 8♦. Vanessa hits top set. Andrew pairs his eight and holds a live backdoor club draw. Vanessa fires 400k. This sizing builds the pot and forces Andrew to define his hand early. Andrew calls. His pair plus backdoor equity is enough to peel against a range that still includes some bluffs.

The turn brings the Q♠. Andrew picks up extra outs. He now has a pair and a live flush draw to the clubs. He checks. Vanessa moves all in without hesitation. 

Her shove removes any chance for Andrew to realise equity with a marginal hand. High-level coaches like Elliot Roe often stress that strong players close the action fast on paired boards to deny free cards.

Andrew goes deep into the tank and folds. He tells the table this is the only ace-high board he can fold on. The wondercam shows the river would have completed the club flush. Had Andrew called, he would have knocked Vanessa out. 

The hand is a sharp example of how final-table pressure drives tight folds. Vanessa took a fast, direct line and protected her entire range. Andrew made the disciplined choice that strong players accept when stack preservation carries more value than chasing draws.

Justin Young opens the button with K5 and takes a passive route by limping. Chino Rheem completes in the big blind with A4 of diamonds. 

Both players see a flop of 3 7 K. Young hits top pair. Chino picks up a live overcard and the nut-flush draw. This board texture creates one of the most pressure-heavy spots in heads-up poker because the top pair player holds a strong but fragile hand.

Young leads 300k. The sizing invites Chino to attack. 

Typically, strong players punish small protection bets on dynamic boards. Chino raises to 1.4 million. Young responds with a three-bet to 3 million. The re-raise signals real value. Chino’s draw sits at the top of the semi-bluff range, so he moves all in. This is textbook high-level aggression. Tournament coaches like Jared Tendler have pointed out that elite players understand that fold equity plus fifteen outs creates real profit in spots like this.

Young goes deep into the tank. Calling off stacks with K5 on K73 is rarely comfortable because every turn card except a king or five shifts equity toward the draw. 

After a long count, Young folds. Chino drags a pot worth more than 12.6 million.

This is one of the most memorable bluffs of that era. Chino applied maximum pressure at the exact point where top pair becomes a bluff-catcher against a balanced range. Young’s fold shows strong discipline, but the pot size makes it a brutal result.

Anthony Spinella and Chino Rheem see a flop of K 2 5 with two clubs. 

Chino holds K9 and fires a standard continuation bet. Top pair with a strong kicker plays well here because it blocks many king-x combos and puts real pressure on the weaker pairs and draws in Spinella’s range. Spinella calls with A2. Bottom pair with backdoor equity works as a defend in position, and the call keeps the pot small while preserving implied odds.

The turn brings the 7 of clubs. Spinella picks up the nut flush draw and checks. Chino bets 600k into a growing pot. His line stays consistent. Top pair gains value on a turn that completes no strong made hands except the rare two-club holdings. Spinella calls again with sixteen clean outs.

The river ace gives Spinella two pair. He checks a third time. The check invites Chino to value-bet thin or attempt a pressure bet that targets missed draws. Chino fires 1.5 million. It is an ambitious sizing because Spinella’s range carries many A-x floats that complete on this card. Mental-game coaches like Dr. Tricia Cardner often point out that thin value becomes dangerous on ace rivers because players underweight how many bluff-catchers opponents reach the river with.

Spinella snap-calls. Chino tosses his cards forward with the confidence of top pair but sees the bad news at once. Two pair takes it. 

This is one of those examples where the hand shows how river discipline matters at final tables. Spinella stayed tight with his ranges. Chino pushed past a safe threshold at a point where the board punished thin value. 

John shoves with K6 in the small blind. Tommy wakes up with A10 and calls at once. In heads-up play, both hands sit at the top of their ranges. A10 offsuit is well ahead of K6, and it plays clean in all-in pots because it dominates many of the king-x holdings opponents use to shove late-stage.

The dealer spreads J K 6. John spikes two pair and jumps to about 86 percent equity. Tommy steps back from the table with a calm look. Players at this level know that top-pair-plus-draw boards still carry real redraw value. A10 needs a queen or running tens. The spot stays live enough to keep the rail tense.

The turn brings the queen. Tommy hits the straight and flips the entire pot in one card. Moments like this are the reason mental-game coaches like Elliot Roe stress emotional composure. The swing from twenty percent to locked-up value happens fast.

The river pairs none of John’s outs. The 4 lands and seals the pot for Tommy. His rail erupts as he becomes a two-time WPT champion. He entered the final with the shortest stack and worked back through pressure spots all night. This ranks as one of the cleanest comeback runs of the season.

This is the one i'd say was the most nailbiting of the hands i reviewed this month.

Curt opens with pocket jacks from early position and sets the price at 100k. Abbey Daniel finds queens in the cutoff and raises to 250k. Her sizing keeps weaker pairs in and isolates the opener, which is standard at this stack depth. The rest of the table gets out of the way. Curt takes a few seconds, then moves all in. Abbey calls at once. Jacks versus queens is a classic preflop cooler in these spots. The equity sits close to 20 percent for Curt before the board runs.

Curt sees the bad news and reacts with clear frustration. 

Abbey holds a strong lead when the dealer spreads 4 10 8. Her hand stays ahead on every runout except the narrow set and straight combinations the jacks can catch. The turn flips the script. A jack hits and Curt jumps to more than 90 percent equity. The river pairs the board and locks up a full house for him.

This is the type of swing that defines final tables. Abbey plays the hand by the book. Curt plays the hand by the book. Queens against jacks gets the money in every time. Poker psychology coach Jared Tendler often notes that coolers like this are the real emotional stress points in tournaments because no one misplayed anything. 

Curt’s reaction shows that release. He survived the worst of it and pulled in a pot worth about three million.